our next trio
by ba'al turtledove
Summary: follow the story of the next trio, the three kids who picked up the torch of "why is it always you three?" after harry and his children have left Hogwarts, our three are Marco, an average muggle born student, with a good heart and a love for his friends, lucy, daughter of the current headmaster, prodigy in her own right, and ricard, a magical virtuoso.


Hogwarts

My name is Marco Tomlin, I'm a- no, I'm about to be a first year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. As we speak I'm about to get sorted, and I have this absolute horrible feeling that the hat is going to be out on my head and It'll say"how did this thing get in here?" I wasn't only a bad for normal standards but there were apparently prodigies, the first one had been Lucy Clarke, who was the youngest daughter of the current headmaster Citrinitas Clarke, like her six older sisters was a magical prodigy, even though parents weren't supposed to teach their kids magic but they just waved the hat over her and it yelled griffindor, the other prodigy even I had seen, Ricard Hewley, he had fallen asleep on the train and flowers and roots had started sprouting up around him, in the train car, he was freaking asleep and didn't have his wand on him, the news had spread like wildfire, someone had thrown a box of candy from the trolley at him and woken him up, and they said all he did was laugh, apologize, and make them disappear, I was there when we had gotten off the train and the conjuration teacher had been called down to the station to pick him up. His name hadn't even been called, he'd been put into gryffindor, people were saying it was so that the charms and configurations teachers could keep an eye on him, "Marco Tomlin." I nearly peed my pants when they called my name, I slowly climbed out from the table and made my way up, I sat on the stool and the head of the gryffindor house, professor longbottom, he smiled warmly at me, "nervous?" I nodded "don't be." I sat down on the stool and he set the hat down on my head "my my, this ones absolutely terrified, should I play with him a bit and mull over his house?" "Don't be cruel." The professor told the hat, and in response it sighed "fine fine, another gryffindor." There was a round of cheers from the gryffindor table and I passed out.

When I came to I was in the infirmary, I sat up slowly and saw the nurse, mr. Longbottom and a third who I recognized as Ricard Hewley they saw I was awake and all looked relieved, the nurse came over to me "how are you feeling? First you pass out then you take quite a tumble." I nodded "i think I just got overly stressed and passed out." "Has it happened before?" I shook my head "well, you are muggle born no? Was the stress you said you were experiencing due to worry over being sorted?" I nodded and mr longbottom grinned "I felt the same way when I was sorted, after the feast I threw up." I laughed a bit and the nurse continued "get plenty of rest tonight and tell me if you experience more troubles with this, one of your new house mates even came with mr. Longbottom to check on you." At that Ricard waved "hi, I'm Ricard, I'm narcoleptic so I know what that's like, I came to see if there was anything I could do to help." "What's narcoleptic?" He laughed and I felt bad "no no, don't worry about it, it's weird, it just means I don't sleep normally, no matter how long I sleep at night during the day sometimes I just fall asleep at the oddest times, never with any real rhyme or reason." I nodded "oh, I'm sorry." He shook his head "no it's fine, the worst that's ever happened is one time my friend drew all over the face in marker." I laughed "hey so everyone's gone back to the common room and dorms, want me to show you?" I nodded excitedly, I looked at the nurse and she nodded "if you feel up to it you are welcome to leave, be sure not to stress yourself out okay?" I nodded and climbed out of the bed, finding my shoes sitting next to it, I slipped them on and stood, I thanked the nurse and professor Longbottom before rolling Ricard "so your muggle born?" I nodded "that's cool, exotic ya know? My dads a wizard, I'm from canada." "That's cool, I'm from London." I followed him across amazing hallways, up moving stairs and then to a painting of a... Full figured woman, she smiled at us "welcome back you two, would you like a song?" "That would be lovely, but Marco's never been in before, I really want to show him the commons and everything." She nodded "lucidum." She nodded and her painting swung open to reveal a corridor into a massive common room decked out in gryffindor regalia, "this is the commons." He showed me all around it and showed me the dorms, hell he even traded bunks so we were next to each other. "Hey! You missed the feast! You must be starved!" "Um... A little..." "Wait right here I'll get you something to eat." He ran out of the dorms and fifteen minutes came back using his sweater to carry a dozen apples. "Where did you get those?" I ran down to the courtyard and grew them." "Grew them?" He nodded "umm... Well I'm good with nature magic." He explained I was surprised though "can most wizards do that?" He shrugged, I don't know, well eat up." He set them on my bed and grinned before stripping down to his boxers, flipping onto his bed and falling asleep "what a strange guy..."

The next morning I woke up a lot more relaxed, I reached over to my alarm just before it went off, if there was one thing I was good at it was waking up on time, I climbed out of bed still rubbing my eyes, and my feet didn't hit hard wood, they hit grass, I looked down and saw Ricard snoring on the grass, "wow... He can do that in his sleep?" I crouched down and shook him "hey, wake up, your making the floor boards grow grass." He yawned and sat up "good morning, oops, he stood and bent down and smoothed the grass down "go back to sleep, stupid floor." The grass that had sprouted made a noise similar to a whine before laying flat and melting back into floor board, "how do you do that?" He shrugged "magic probably, I'm hungry let's get washed up and get breakfast."

After cleaning up and getting dressed we raced down to the great hall, which was mostly empty, probably a result of how early it was, I loaded up my plate with a hearty breakfast still hungry despite the six apples I had eaten last night. I looked for Ricard and found him sitting with two tall blonde boys. I went over to him and he patted the seat next to him "Marco this is Lysander and Lorcan, they're sixth years, ravenclaw." They both waved "hello there little one, we met Ricard here on one of our mothers trips, he'll keep an eye out for you." I nodded gulping in terror at the older wizards "calm down Marco their good guys, well Lysander is." Lorcan made an indignant noise at that "hey!" "Oh shut it trouble maker." Ricard said nonchalantly before taking a loud juicy bite out of his apple, I was amazed a his confidence, not only around older boys but around wizards from a different house too. "So you two are stuck with all the boring mandatory classes this year huh?" I nodded while Ricard shrugged "I didn't check." I laughed at him "good thing I did, first thing we have is flying lessons." He looked surprised "wow, well i hope you have fun!" I looked at him confused "why? Won't you be there?" He shook his head "I'm not allowed on a broom, falling asleep in midair wouldn't be fun." "So what are you going to do instead?" "I'm taking an alchemy class with these two." He grinned and I looked at them for confirmation, they nodded "I though they only taught alchemy to six and seventh years?" They nodded again "it's because this little bugger here is a bloody nutter." "Somebody translate for me!" I laughed at Ricard "they're saying you're crazy." "Oh, okay then." He just shrugged and went back to eating his massive plate of fruit, "are you a vegetarian?" He nodded "Ma says if your going to be eating other living things you better not complain when they eat you, and I don't want to be eaten, and I don't want to be eaten." I laughed and Lorcan grinned "I get vegetarians have been eaten by wild tigers and lions and bears Ricard." He shrugged "they fell prey to bacon."

A bunch of us were standing out in one of the courtyards, the instructor mrs. Bell was pacing back and forth, brooms sat next to us on the ground "first things first raise your right hand over your broom and take a deep breath, I followed her instructions and waited for more "now, focus and command the broom, up, and get it to rise off the floor and right to your hand." I nodded and before I could even thing about Lucy Clarke raised her hand and caught her broom without even saying up. Whispers and mutters about how she had used wordless magic and how she was going to make us all look bad rolled through the crowd, but I tried to ignore it, I don't have to be as good as her, I jus have to do it." "Up." The brook rose off the ground, it wobbled halfway but he made it to my hand, I grinned at the teacher excited, and my enthusiasm only grew when I saw that the others were having more trouble than I was. Once everyone had their brooms in hand she addressed us again "okay, now straddle your brooms, and rise off the ground." I looked at Lucy as she sat on her broom side saddle and floated off the ground leisurely, I looked at her defiantly, I stepped over my broom and pushed off from the ground, "good job you two, everyone else now." I looked a Lucy "I'm Marco." She nodded "Lucy Clarke. Your friends with nature boy aren't you, where is he?" "He's not allowed to ride a broom." She frowned, too bad." "Only a couple other people had gotten off the ground so far and mrs. Bell looked at us "you two are pretty good, you should try out for the junior varsity quiditch team." "Really?" She nodded and I had to stop my brook from flying higher, I laughed and came back to Lucy's level. "This is so much fun."

A month had passed and i walked into the common room and found a bunch of my friends sitting on or around the couches, there was gray Thomas, who was in my astronomy class and the funniest person I had ever met, Ajax Peters who was so cool because he had all these stories to tell, most of them about him getting in trouble back on Egypt, and there was ciao chow (Zhou). Yes that was his real name, his parents thought it was hilarious to name a half Italian half Chinese child like that. "What's up?" "Gossiping as usual." Lucy commented sardonically when she passed us "ice queen." She kept walking completely unfazed "we were talking about Ricard, have you heard?" "Heard what?" "He's taking alchemy, conjury and charms and is acing all of them, but he's practically failing everything else." "Really?" They nodded "he's taking two advanced classes that shouldn't even been possible because it seems like that's all he's good at, he needs to pull his grades up or he'll be in serious trouble when we reach the mid-semester." "We need to help him, he's a genius we can't let him flunk out! He's been helping me with charms since day one." Ciao said, and quickly amended it "and he's our friend." I nodded my assent "has anyone seen him today?" They shook their heads "the flower child's out by the green house."Lucy provided again. "It's almost dark he's gonna get in trouble." "Was he asleep?" She shrugged "couldn't you be nice for once?" She slammed her book shut "fine, I'll go knock some sense into him, would that be nice?" She stood and we all followed her racing down the stairs and hallways and slipping across the courtyard and out into the hills outside of the green house, by then the sun was just kissing the horizon casting an orange glow over everything "you boobs wait here." She stormed over to where he was, he was laying fast asleep on the hill, his arms up crossed behind his head as a pillow, I looked at him, and really looked at him for the first time. He was twelve years old five feet high, he had short tousled black hair, not just black darker than I had ever seen, darker than a ravens wings, darker than pitch, it was almost shiny it was so black, I had never been to canada, I had always imagined it was ice cold, but he had a rich Mediterranean tan, as always he was wearing tan pants, an untucked crisp white shirt, loosened gryffindor tie and dark sweater. But really looking at him there was something wild about him, something that seemed like it be more at home in the dark forest than inside the castle, but it wasn't predatory, it was free spirited. Lucy was standing over him with her arms crossed annoyed and then she was talking to him "you are such an idiot, I refuse to let the best wizard in our class be a slothful layabout, I don't know whether I hate it more that your more powerful than I am, or that you don't care." I looked at her, she was the same height as Ricard, she had straight flaxen hair tied back in a perpetual pony tail, porcelain skin and aristocratic features. She wore her uniform perfectly, not a thread out of place. Despite her father being the headmaster, despite coming from a prestigious family she didn't give off an uppity aura. Instead she radiated determination, to prove herself, And she would work as hard as he had to. The sun was setting and I walked over to them "we should wake him up and get going before we all get caught." She nodded but we all froze when we heard a howl from the tree line not far away, "what was that?" Ricard sat up rubbing his eyes, I looked back at my friends and saw they had ran off, I looked at Lucy and saw she was looking towards the woods, her mouth hanging open I followed her gaze and saw it, it had just emerged from the tree like as dusk was setting in it looked like a werewolf, but it had very little fur, and looked more emaciated human than wolf, but still had the bestial features and mattering of pale gray fur, it's eyes were set deep in it's head and it had two massive wolf ears on top. "Is that a werewolf!?" Ricard shot up "it's a wendigo." Ricard stated with a grave tone "run!" It was too late though the thing was loping at us at high speed, I didn't run, I grabbed my wand "Glacius!" I flicked my wand and the spell worked, frost formed around the things... Hands? Paws? And quickly formed into ice but it shattered itself free and kept coming." Lucy drew her wand and Ricard shot to the ground, he held his ear against it and then pounded his fist in one place then the next as if looking for something, "what are you doing!" Lucy flicked with her wand and a plume of fire shot at the creature, "wake up!" Ricard shouted, and just as the thing got close enough that I could see it's blazing blue eyes, only twenty feet from us, giant roots shot up from the ground, the thing gave a help as the rose around us before encasing us completely in a dome, as they closed above us all light was extinguished I panicked and closed my eyes, I heard Lucy scream but then there was light, I opened my eyes and dropped my arms to see Ricard standing and had drawn his wand, a large pulsing light bloomed at it's tip, illuminating the cage of roots we were inside. "Everyone okay?" Lucy was on the ground she had obviously tripped in the darkness and was wiping her eyes I went over to her and helped her up "I-I'm fine..." There was a clawing noise from outside the dome of roots Lucy shot into my arms "Ricard!" He laid his hand against the barrier and there was a yelp from outside "what is that thing!" He turned and looked at us biting his lip "it's a wendigo..." "What is that!" He scratched the back of his head "um... Just a scary monster, we're fine though! He can't get through this it's about ten feet thick." "How did you do that Ricard? How do you know what that thing is!" "I've met one before." "Oh god... We're gonna die!" Ricard shook his head "no we aren't! I promise I will protect you two." He raised his wand and the orb of light detached and floated lazily into the air, it's color changing from a pearly white to a sunshine yellow glow, he put his wand away and knelt on the ground he patted the grass and flowers started sprouting all around him, spreading out till the ground was covered around us "we're safe, it's okay." He shot a reassuring smiled at Lucy before sending the exact same one to me, I was trying to act tough but i was so terrified, the sorting was nothing compared to this. Lucy pulled away from me looking embarrassed, "it's still out there..." Ricard nodded and the scratching started up again "please make it stop." I didn't realize what I had said he looked at me surprised and there was a protective fire in his eyes he walked up to where the scratching was coming from he stomped his foot and there was more than a yelp from the other side, if was a whine of pain, there was a howl and then silence, "calm down, it'll all be okay." A she spoke though he was getting unsteady on his feet, he rubbed at his eyes he shook his head and brought his hand to his mouth and bit it "Ricard hat's wrong!" He shook his head humming something incomprehensible as an answer, and then his head started drooping and he fell to the ground "on my god!" We scrambled over to him and shook him "no no no no no... Wake up! Come on you big idiot!" She shook him but it didn't work "he just woke up how can he be having an episode!" "H-he he said something about falling asleep when he used too much magic." She gulped and nodded "do you... Do you think his barrier will last until they get help?" I didn't know how to answer, I tried to talk but my voice cracked and she nodded gripping her wand. "It's okay... We'll be fine." She put Ricards head in her lap and her and I sat back to back. "How long have we even been in here?" "I don't-" we both nearly jumped out of our skins when there was a pounding in the side of the dome "it's back!" "Lucy! Lucy are you in there!" "D-daddy!" I heard her cry out, and the next thing I know there's a flash of light and the dome is split open, standing there outside it was the headmaster and a dozen teachers all looking sick with worry.

"He's still asleep?" I nodded at Lucy, things had happened fast, we had all been rushed inside the castle, the doors locked and we were taken to the infirmary, they set Ricard down on a bed and we were both checked over for injury, as soon as they let us to we ran to Ricards bed side "Lucy what happened?" It was the headmaster "w-we went out to get Ricard because it was almost dark and we didn't want him to get in trouble... And then that thing that... Wendigo showed up, and Ricard saved us." She wiped at her eyes as tears boiled up in them, "what happened to him?" "He's narcoleptic, and he used all that magic, he put up the barrier, and he grew all these flowers and then when the monster was attack the dome he did something to it." The headmaster looked at professor longbottom "there were thorns wrapped around the dome, he grew them to protect you, what about the flowers?" The professor nodded "all lavender and chamomile, he was trying to keep them calm. His talent at spagyric is like nothing we've ever even heard of." I looked at Ricard amazed "what about this wendigo, are you sure that's what it was?" I looked at Lucy and we both shook our heads "that's what Ricard said." He nodded "Neville make sure everyone is informed, gather a party and send out a report, I need to tend to my daughter" "yes sir." The headmaster looked at his daughter then at me "are you both okay?"

After everything had settled down I had been sent to the dorms where after a welcome back sob party I collapsed exhausted in my bed. The next day I went to the infirmary between all of my classes to check on him but he was still snoring. I did check out what spagyric was, it was nature alchemy, which explained a lot. after all my classes had finished I headed down and found he was awake and both the headmaster and lucy with him, the headmaster looked at me with the same prodding and piercing eyes as his daughter "you were right darling, he came." Lucy crossed her arms and looked at the ground Ricard waved "hey buddy." "They just got here, they were asking me about last night." The head master nodded "they both said you recognized the beast as a wendigo." He nodded "I know this is far out of their normal territory but it was a wendigo." "You are sure it wasn't a werewolf of a familiar of some kind?" He shook his head "could you tell it it was feral or human he shook his head "it didn't have horns yet, so it was too young for me to tell, it could be either." He nodded grimly, "we sent out a search party but they didn't find anything besides prints." "Is it possible that a feral wendigo would even be able to survive here?" The headmaster questioned Ricard who looked grim "not in the dark forest... Centaurs have too much creature blood on them to be a viable food source for a wendigo, and nobody's gone missin from the castle or hogsmead." "What does that have to do with anything?" Lucy asked, he nodded "remember how I was pretty well... Vague about what a wendigo is?" I looked at Lucy and nodded "a wendigo is a gluttony spirit. There are two kinds, feral and human, the feral is like any other magical creature, just a monster... But the human is someone who was cursed with it like a werewolf, and the defining characteristic is... Cannibalism." "It eats people!" Ricard nodded. "A feral wendigo would have had to hibernate by now or garbs, but a human wendigo could have been cursed since before the school year had even started, or they could have only just been cursed." "So you believe it Is a cursed human?" Ricard nodded "very well. Now that all three of you are awake there are other things to discuss, I have to thank you personally, you protected my daughter from an incredibly dangerous situation, it's a debt I will not easily forget, as for what this means for you as a student, five points from gryffindor, each, for being outside the castle after dark, and to Ricard Hewley, fifty points, for outstanding use of magic and heroism." He nodded to each of us and left, Ricard sighed "I don't like this. I don't like this at all." He stood and worked his feet into his shoes, "Ricard..." He looked at Lucy "yeah?" "I... Okay listen, I owe you for saving me... And it bothers me so much that you are failing your classes, so um... Okay I'll be tutoring you from now on." Ricard shrugged "okay, sounds fun." "I'm not going to let you slack off, and if you fall asleep I'll set your head on fire."

I followed Ricard as he was running towards the great hall for supper and nearly crashed into him when we passed the hallway outside the ravenclaw commons he was staring at something worriedly, the only one standing in the hall was Lorcan and some ravenclaw girl talking, the blonde sixth years arm was wrapped up in bandages though "what's the matter?" He shook his head, "nothing, don't worry about it." He started running again and I followed him. We reached the hall and split up, I went to get a regular dinner and he went to the kitchen to return a minute later with a mountain of fruit. I saw him wave to me as he sat across from Lucy and joined them "so this wendigo, how does someone become one." Ricard scratched the back of his neck, "well... Okay there are three ways, you are either infected by a blood infusion by a wendigo, they usualy Poke themselves with one of their class and infect someone else if they're going to do it. Or a wizard can induce It in someone by poisoning them with bone powder from the bones of a murdered person..." "What's the third possibility?" He looked worried "well... Humans who cannibalize when it isn't out of necessity are vulnerable... And Can be possessed." I'm glad I hadn't gotten very much meat tonight, because my stomach turned at the thought of it, "so the quiditch JV tryouts are tomorrow after classes." Lucy nodded. "Of course I will be." He looked me dead in the eyes "come on, you have to, you were so excited the first day after flying." "A-alright..." "Well don't just do it cuz I'm telling you to, do it because you want to."

Ricard-

I waited for midnight before sneaking to the courtyard,I knelt and patted the grass "myosotis." Small blue flowers began so shoot up around me, I began picking them, I stuffed them into my pockets, my shoes, the collar of my shirt in my hair and behind my ears, all so they would be visible, "wake up." The flowers began to give off a Pulsing pale blue gray light, i made my way slowly up to the fifth floor and to the ravenclaw commons I knelt in front of the eagle door handle, I touched it and it came alive, flapping it's wings twice before speaking to me inside my head "When you have me, you feel like sharing me. But, if you do share me, you don't have me. What am I?" I bit my lip and considered the words "a secret." There was a soft click and and door swung open soundlessly. I crept in, my way illuminated by the flowers, I paced across it until I reached the door to the dorms, "boys should be on the right..." I slipped inside and went into all of the rooms, checking all of the beds, I made I through the first three before someone woke up, it was a third year they sat up in their bed and looked dead at me, I stood perfectly still and held my breath, a couple seconds later they just layer back down and rolled over. I checked the other beds in the room before creeping out again, I checked every last room and found what I was looking for, two empty beds, I left the common room and ran towards the courtyard, I slipped outside the castle through on elf the green house windows and ran to where we had seen the wendigo, the roots I had summoned had shrunk back into the ground, leaving a circle of freshly turned soul and wilted chamomile and lavender. I ran towards the edge of the forbidden forest and drew my wand just in case, I made my way into the forest moving slowly looking for any sign of the cannibal monster of a student, a unicorn went racing past me, nearly stabbing me with it's horn and I saw what it was running from, the wendigo, which was now loping at high speed towards me. "Stupify!" I flicked my want at it and a burst of white light shot at it but it leapt over it, I slammed my foot down and roots shot out from the ground flicking it against a tree, it collapsed to the ground and weakly tried to get up, "stop him." I heard a girls voice say "stop! You'll hurt him!" I recognized the voice, but what I didn't know was whether it was Lysander or Lorcan. The wendigo got back on it's feet and charged me again, "stupify!" I managed to hit the wendigo and it crashed onto me, it's claws scraping across my arm shredding my uniform, It collapsed in a heap past me and I held my bleeding arm "confundo!" The confusion spell hit me dead on I tried to run but every time I thought I was running through a clear area i was crashing into a tree, I heard them closing in on me and i wouldn't ever escape with this charm on me "pretty lady." Belladonna started shooting up around me, I ripped off a single petal and put it on my tongue, I felt my tongue go numb but at the same time the poisoned petal sucked the confusion from me, I spat it out and sprinted out of the forest clutching my arm. I reached the wall of the castle and I was running out of magic, any more and I would pass out, but that was better than dying, I swung my wand and roots shot from the ground building a bridge over the wall, I climbed them just as spells were crashing towards me I dropped over the wall. I could already feel the undeniable pull to go to sleep, I could barely tell where I was, "I'm on the south lawn... I'm too exposed... Need to... Need to get someplace safer." I ran towards the main but collapsed in front of the trophy hall.

Marco-

I woke up before my alarm and stretched with a yawn, I slipped out of bed but unlike every other morning my feet met cold hardwood. I looked in the bed but Ricard was gone "maybe he got up early?" I got cleaned up and headed to the great hall but as soon as I walked in the door Lucy ran past me grabbing my arm "he's in the infirmary again." I picked up my pace to match hers "Ricard? What happened.?" "A ghost found him this morning, nobody else was able to notice him because he was under an illusion, he was bleeding is all they told me." We reached the infirmary and found Ricard sitting on a bed, his arm wrapped up in bandages "hey did I miss breakfast?" "Don't act like this is no big deal! What happened?" He shook his head "it's nothing, a stupid accident." "They said you were under an illusion when the ghosts found you." He nodded "of course, I was sneaking into the kitchen to get something to eat so I put an illusion on myself, I ended u knocking over a stack of knives and falling asleep. I nodded exasperated "you can't be serious how do you always get yourself into these situations?" He gave us a goofy grin. Lucy looked at me and I nodded, it wasn't hard to tell Ricard was lying, protecting us from something again.

"You sure your ready for this?" Lucy looked at me dubiously, I looked up in the stands to see Ricard and a couple other people watching an older student stood in front of us in quiditch attire, "everyone will go through the same try outs, but if you have an idea what you are trying out as that would help." Lucy nodded "seeker." I stepped forward too "umm... Keeper..." She looked at me surprised while the upperclassman nodded "good to hear we've got those pinned, anyone else for those two positions?" There wasn't a peep out of the ten other people "okay, five more spots then, three chasers and two beaters."

"You two did great! You think you made the team?" Lucy nodded "they said next year I might be a sure thing for varsity seeker." He offered her an apple like a trophy "what about you?" I looked at my feet "they said is was okay... They would post the listings..." He handed me an apple and a pear "I'm sure they'll pick you, don't worry." "Why does he get more fruit than me?" "Because you were more confident about making the team." She crossed her arms with a huff "did you study like I told you?" "N-no..." He scratched his neck nervously "eh... Hey I best remembered I had this thing that I conveniently am supposed to be doing right now I gotta run!" He started running away with Lucy chucking the apple at the back of his dropped like a stone "I think you might have killed him this time." "You can't prove anything."

Ricard-

"Do you know the identity of the wendigo, yes or no." "No." I responded half honestly "what were you doing in ravenclaw commons, the door had a memory lock on it." "I had reason to believe one of the raven claw students may have been the wendigo, so I checked." "Can you explain to me just how you checked, I am not accustomed to spagyric methods." I looked at Lucy's father ashamed "I... I grew forget me nots and used magic to activate their latent power, they didn't grant me invisibility they made me unnoticeable anyone who saw me would see me as part of the background if I stayed still and quiet." "And the confrontation in the woods?" "I was hit with a confundus charm, and wounded by the wendigo." "And passed out?" I shook my head "it wasn't due to my narcolepsy it was due to the amount of magic I used, there's no set limit... All I know is that I have magic like I do because of how I was raised, and that when I call on it it triggers my narcolepsy as well." He looked me over appraisingly "I have one more question." I nodded "why are you taking this upon yourself? You are the most talented first year in the school, surpassing my own daughter, were you to duel any of the other students all the way up to perhaps the seventh year I wouldn't know where to place my money, but a vigilante running around after a monster is not a good way to begin the school year." "I... That thing... It tried to hurt my friends... And I've seen what they can do... I watched my mother fight one off after seeing it murder almost twenty people... For those with power to neglect to use it is wrong." The tall scary aristocratic blonde headmaster nodded "I've called in aurors and detectives from the department of mysteries, they will get to the bottom of this, and I greatly respect you, you may be the bravest eleven year old I've ever met." "T-twelve... My birthday started a half an hour ago." He looked surprised and looked at the clock "so it is, I apologize for keeping you so late into the night." He stood came around from behind the desk and stood infront of me, looking down at me before crouching so we were eye level "you are a true gryffindor, but please listen to me, this is dangerous, not just as headmaster, but as the father of one of your friends, if you can't stay out of this all together, please be safe." "I swear I will be, I'll fix this."

Lucy-

"Where is he." "It's his birthday he's allowed to sleep in." "He's narcoleptic, shouldn't one of us gone to make sure he didn't wake up and fall asleep again it's almost eleven." "Maybe he's got a hot date, I heard he and Yuna from ravenclaw." Ciao suggested, I rolled my eyes at the oohs and aahs from the other boys, really? And people say girls gossip too much?" "I heard that some caught him and Martina from slytherin kissing in the astronomy tower." "Would you all shut up!" I hadnt to even realized my own outburst but then again I'd been waiting here with five boys for the last hour waiting for the flower child. "Jeez come on ice queen." "I'm not an ice queen, you all just gossip all day long!" "Maybe she's jealous, well? Got a crush on Ricard do we?" "I do not!" I almost screamed, completely adamant in my own statement. "What's all the yelling, it's too early in the morning." We nearly jumped out of our skins when unbeknownst to us Ricard had walked in behind us "where were you? We thought you were still asleep? I mean- surprise!" "Huh?" "Happy birthday!" "Oh! This is. Surprise party!" We hung our heads in shame "it was supposed to be "come on we're taking you into hogsmead to celebrate." "That's really nice of you guys but I actually have something I have to do-" "you are not getting out of this come on." They grabbed him and dragged him out of the common room, I looked at Marco and grinned "come on, let's go have fun."

We went into hogsmead, bought a ridiculous amount of candy, drank butterbeer till we were giggling under it's mysterious but non alcoholic effects. There was a round of for he's a jolly good fellow and happy birthday occurring at the exact same time, the singing came to an end and we were all surprised when Yuna walked in, she waved at all of us blushing madly and walked up to Ricard "um... Happy birthday Ricard." I barely saw it happen it was so fast, she pecked him on the lips and zoomed out of the three broomsticks with lightning speed, there was a roar of applause and laughing, even I nearly fell over laughing at the goofy look on Ricards face. Marco stood up and gave a toast "Ricard you've been my best friend since I got here. Even the first day when I passed out you came and checked on me, I just want you to know how much you, and everyone else here means to me." I raised my mug and gave him an encouraging smile, "so thanks everybody." "Present time!" I watched as everyone handed him silly little gifts, nobody could afford very much we only had so much allowance, a zero-g bouncy ball from Ajax, a giggle box from gray, and some kind of potted plant from ciao. The gift that I thought was ingenious though was Marco's, who gave Ricard a dream catcher "I though if you have to sleep so much you might as well have good dreams." I was the last one so I tossed him the tie. "What's this a tie?" "It bothers me that every day your tie is too short, or too loose, to this is the solution." He inspected it and saw it was a zip up tie and laughed "thank you, from now on you'll never have to put up with my sloppy tie knots."

we were all walking back to the castle, well before the sun was supposed to go down and were all laughing "we all stopped though when we heard someone call Ricards name behind us, I saw a visible shudder run though him as he turned around and saw Lorcan and behind him Lysander . "Hey! Happy birthday, we got you a present." He handed Ricard a gift bag but but froze when he saw the bandages on Ricards arm. The two stared at each other for a second "hey are you going to give it to him or not?" Lysander asked, Lorcan realized what was going on and smiled "sorry spaced out, happy birthday." Ricard nodded "thanks, see you guys later. Don't stay out here too late, don't stay out too late." I looked at Marco and he looked at me, we were thinking the same thing. We hung back

As we all kept walking "what do you think is going on?" He shook his head "I don't know... What was that just now, with Lorcan?" I shook my head "I don't know, but I have a feeling mr. Green thumb is protecting us from something." "What should we do?" "Well... I don't know... I'm going to talk to my dad."

"what's going on Lucy." "I want to know what's going on with the wendigo." My dad finally looked up from stacks and stacks of papers "nothing, there have been numerous sightings at a distance but no encounters asides from... One of the dorm girls came and told me you were still having nightmares..." I shook my head "it was Mira wasn't it- I mean she's a liar... Hey don't change the subject!" "Alright alright, the wendigo is obviously very real and out there, with absolutely no attacks this seems completely illogical." "What does that mean then..." "I personally believe that the only explanation is that it is a human transformed, that had found a way to produce a sustainable food source." "Can't it eat as a human?" He nodded " yes but once a wendigo has undergone it's transformation, which is caused randomly or by the sight of blood. Once the transformation occurs they can't revert until they have consumed human flesh- I'm sorry, I'm only scaring you more." He stood and came around his desk to me, he hugged me "don't worry about the wendigo, it can't hurt you I won't let it."

Marco-

The next couple of weeks were strange... Ricard was... Distant? He went to all of his classes, studied with Lucy, would hang out with me and then he would up and disappear, I would wait up for him at night to come back but I would always fall asleep before he did, and then in the morning I would wake up, slide out of bed and my feet would find grass instead of hardwood floors, and it would start all over again, Halloween was no different Lucy and I tried to follow him, tried everything to find out what was going on but nothing worked... Until a week before thanksgiving, me and Lucy had tried waiting up for him, it was four am and he still wasn't back yet, "that's it, we're going after raining out there, he's obviously not in the castle because one of the ghosts or someone would have found him by now." "Where do we even start looking? How do we even get out of the castle?"

"How has nobody done this before?" "I don't think most first years can call their broomstick to them from all the way over at the quiditch field." We flew all around the perimeter of the castle looking for any sign of Ricard before flying towards the forbidden forest, and before we even reached it we heard a sound "do you hear that?" She nodded, we followed our ears until we recognized it as absolute wailing and sobbing, we found it and I nearly fell of my broom, it was Ricard, he was on his knees in the rain sitting just outside of the forest, We reached him dropping our brooms and running to him, he was covered in blood and bird feathers , and was just crying, Lucy dropped next to him and hugged him "w-what happened! Is this your blood!" "N-no... " he just kept shaking and crying "they're dead... They're all dead..." He gagged and started throwing up it was blood and chunks of meat... I gagged and pulled the two away from the pile of disgusting rot "what's happening! Ricard are you okay!" "I killed them... It's my fault... Those animals... They're dead because of me." "You... You ate meat... You ate animals what's going on!" Lucy grabbed my arm "we have to get him back, blood... The wendigo will be attracted to this, we have to get him to the infirmary." "N-no! I can't go to the infirmary... Anywhere else..." We looks away as he threw up again, only bile this time but still "nobody can see me... Not till... Not till I've got this under control." I helped Ricard stand "any ideas Lucy?" "T-there's the prefects bathroom, moaning Myrtle was taking up residence there so they closed it... But I know the password to the bathroom, it's completely abandoned..." I nodded "let's go."

We managed to keep him upright on Lucy's broom as we flew back to the castle and she used a spell to open a window into the hallway next to it she unlocked the door and helped me carry a now sleeping Ricard inside, "h-he's shivering... We need to warm him up..." I nodded "the bath?" "I'll run it." She hit handle on the faucet and the pool began to fill itself miraculously fast, "let's get him in." Lucy helped me day him in and set him in the warm bath water, we sat in it with him on either side so he didn't fall over while asleep. "What happened out there Lucy..." She shook her head "I don't know... " she started shaking and I stood up in the water and went over to her and hugged her, she cried hard for a minute or two before choking it back and rubbing at her eyes, "it's not fair... Six sister, four who have already graduated and I'm the only one who has to put up with this stuff, they all told me how amazing hogwarts was, how much fun I would have and how much I would learn, and I have been, but it's just... Just terrifying, that monster is out on the loose and Ricard is hiding things from us... What's going on..."

A half an hour later we hauled Ricard out of the tub and Lucy used a spell to dry us all off almost instantly, " "how do we wake him up to get answers? It's five thirty in the morning." "We've tried everything in the dorms, dropping him, pinching him, shoving jelly beans up his nose." She gave a week laugh, "he's so lucky we don't have classes today." I nodded "he said nobody could see him... I don't think we should take him back to the dorm." "Okay... I'll go get som stuff so we can stay here with him till he wakes up."

I came back bringing food and books and a pillow, Lucy and I sit here in silence, it's almost noon when moss starts growing across the stone floor around Ricard, "that's probably a good sign." "That normal?" "I wake u every morning and there's a grass carpet in our dorm room, let's see if we can wake him up." Lucy shot up at that "I volunteer." She walked over to him, yanked his top half up by his tie and slapped him hard across the face, "ow!" She leapt back dropping him when he woke up and his head I hit the moss covered stone with a loud painful sounding noise "ow!" He sat up rubbing the back of his head I ran over to them "you okay?" He nodded "um... I guess I have some explaining to do huh?" We both nodded "what happened last night first off?" "Um... Okay this can never leave this room, you have to promise me." We nodded he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a crinkled sheet of paper and unfolded it but saw the ink was smudged to the point of looking like an ink blot test. "Oh, well guess I can't show you that... Okay... This... This was the spell to a human transformation technique, I've been working on it since before Halloween... And well... Last night I perfected it." "So what are you saying?" "I'm an animagus, as of last night." I looked a Lucy for clarify but she shook her head "it takes months, years of study, and nobody becomes one anymore , it takes too much time and devotion." He nodded "close your eyes." I shot him a dubious look but closed my eyes "count to five." "One...two...three...four...five..." Before I opened mine I heard Lucy gasp, I opened them and sitting in front of us was a wolf, "your a wolf!" It's coat was a deep dark gray, and a patch of pitch black on top of it's head, across it's ears and partway down it's back. Like hair, it was small, his wolf form preadolescent like his human form. "That's amazing... First the spagyric and now this..." The wood ran towards the tub and hopped in the drained pool and out of sight before Ricard stood up poking his head over the edge "it's pretty weird huh..." "It's cool!" I found myself saying "why though what happened last night?" "I... Well the animagus is a reflection of the inner animal... The first time you achieve a perfect transformation your conscious falls asleep, and your body is ruled by the id for a while..." He reached into his other pocket this time and pulled out a photo copied piece of paper, the ink hadn't run as much because it hadn't been written with a quill and handed it to Lucy "I was so proud of myself, a full transformation at last, months of study, hours of painful practice beginning the transformation and ending it step by step pushing it farther each time, until finally I achieved it. Since I had to give up quiditch I didn't think I would feel something so invigorating as chasing the snitch, but here I am, giddy as a child. Dumbledore will be so proud, he told me I had another couple months ahead of me before a full transformation would be possible, but here I am. I had read that the transformation has effects on people, and while I must admit I have had a particular taste for milk I didn't know that the beast, actually took over during the first transformation, I was aware of what happened but it was almost as if I was having an our if body experience, I watched as I, in my transformed state, proceeded to raid my kitchen, consumed an exorbitant amount of cream, milk and fish, even plunder my neighbors for more, before scratching on a comfortable spot on my sun room, I reverted to my natural form several hours later and that was all that had happened." Lucy finished reading aloud and I understood "so last night, the wolf went out and hunted, it ate meat and ran wild for a while?" He nodded "I... I feel horrible... I hate myself... But I had to do this, and if I get eaten by a lion it's just fair." "Why did you have to do this?" He shook his head "please... I can't tell you. Please... You two... Are... You mean a lot to me... And I'm going to end this." "Let us help you!" He shook his head. "I don't want you two to get hurt, I promised I'd protect you didn't i?" "You idiot! That's not what friends are meant to do, we help each other and lean against one another and mushy stuff like that." I nodded agreeing with Lucy "we're here to help." "Drop this please... I know you're here to help but please trust me."

"Let us help." "I said no." "Ricard-" "I may not know anything like a memory charm get but a forget me not brew would do the trick." "You would never." "Try me Lucy, and Marco stop following her like a puppy." "I'm not following her like a puppy, I'm following her because she's right." He stopped dead in his tracks "you two are the most annoying people I've ever met." " we love you too." "You're still not helping, you can't anyway, there's a reason I had to become... That... And there isn't time for you two to do it to, and I wouldn't want you to, me doing it as fast as I did really hurt." "Seems like you, always taking shortcuts, no wonder you're flunking!" I sighed. "Wrong point to be arguing Lucy." "I sped it up because I had to, end of story." He turned to leave and Lucy realized she had a second bone to pick "wait! You didn't do the history of magic practice homework I told you to!" She went chasing after him and I just shook my head. "Are you okay Marco?" I turned and saw Lorcan standing there, worried "yeah everything's fine...Well Lucy is probably about to murder Ricard but besides that." "I hear you, hey I was wondering, could you come with me for a second?"

Ricard-

I shook off the tingling from the transformation, it was like that sensation of waking up a limb that had fallen asleep, except all over my body. I loped off towards the forbidden forest, the noises of the forest were well... Terrifying, the Forest was nothing like the forests of my home, this forest wasn't sleeping, It was awake and writhing beneath the soil, I could feel it, it wanted to grow past it's it's limits, it wanted to swell and take over every strip of land it could find. And that was just the flora. The fauna was entirely wild around me, I couldn't begin to imagine how many different species of evil were around me, not to mention the thing I was looking for. It was a long trot deep into the forest before I came to it, a mirror reflection of the trees around me the only thing missing was my own reflection. It was a barrier, that was why the aurors hadn't found anything in the forbidden forest, it was the most powerful variant of the confundus charm known to magic, Pandora's box. The spell was less confusion and more misdirection. It created a barrier that was a pocket dimension, when you reached and crossed it's border you would find yourself to have walked to the opposite edge instantaneously, without even passing through the space in the middle. As added protection it even Dulled the memories of walking near it, the only reason I knew where it was was when I had gone after the wendigo and used the forget me not, one of the scamander boys hit me with a confundus charm, the two confusion charms negated one another, so a long painful research session, lasting no more than two hours occurred, Animals were unaffected though. I passed through the barrier and unsurprisingly entered more forest, I made my way towards where I knew the center of the barrier should be, not far from it I reached a clearing. I stood in the tree line, and kept my eyes sharply trained on what I saw. As if on cue I saw the wendigo loping up to the dead center of the clearing,where the ground was rotted and twisted before plunging into pit twenty feet in radius and I had no idea how deep. It reached it and leaned over making a gagging noise before upchucking what looked to be the body parts of three or four people... I felt bile rise up in my throat even in my wolf form, it was ralfing into the pit and as it did a dark orange glow bloomed in the pit. Something seemed off though, the wendigo was either Lysander or Lorcan, so where was the other one? Where was the woman I had heard? Both were bothering me but they were secondary to what I was watching. The wendigo ran off in a different direction this time, and when my lupine senses told me I was alone and relatively safe I reverted to my human form. My stomach was in knots as I approached the pit... I was only ten feet away when I was bit by a wave of absolute terror, I retreated and slammed my hands down for he ground "wake up!" I tried to grow the tree roots under the ground to seal up the hole, but before my eyes they shot up about five feet from the hole on all sides, and grew upwards in the air , as if they were pressed against a glass wall there was a grizzly rumble from beneath the ground, as if the soil itself had just had the same feeling of nausea as me and then it was a pulse, a pulse of pure terror and dread, so much more powerful than the last the fight of flight instinct dictated I sprinted as fast as I could in the opposite direction, but I was paralyzed by the same fear, after what seemed like ages my body moved, I transformed and tore across the clearing to the treeline and then out of the spells area, and I didn't stop running till I reached the edge of the forest and exited it. This was bad, like on the black list of history of human events bad. I needed to get the headmaster, get the teachers, get every auror I could find and- "Ricard! Ricaaaaaard!" I heard Lucy calling my name, like she was searching for me. I ran towards the sound of her voice and found her standing at the edge of the forest "Lucy? What's wrong why are you here? It's not safe we need to get back "it's Lysander, he's the wendigo. And Lorcan is trying to protect him." "How do you know this?" "He took him. He took Marco, I don't know why but I heard the girls talking about it, hwo they had seen the two go odd and hadn't seen them since." "N-no... Why would Lorcan take him... They haven't taken anyone from the school or village yet why now? We have to find him! If we don't-" "what? Your acting like there's something worse than the wendigo..." "There is..." I jammed my hands into my pockets and thankfully found a pencil and a scrap of paper, I unfolded if and scribbled on it and handed if to Lucy "give this to your dad, tell him we don't have any time to waist, I'll go find Marco." Before she could protest or do anything I had bolted off in my wolf form into the forest again. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me.

Lorcan-

"Are you sure he'll come? I mean... How would he even know?" "He'll come, you say he's smart, he worked past the box somehow, but he's twelve. A twelve year old has never been born who wasn't naive." "There's always a first time..." "He won't just leave his best friend, talented kids like him always claim they would do everything for their friends." "if he shows up then what?" "Then you get what you wanted, he and this brat will trade places with you and your brother." I wring my hands in my shirt and looked at Marco, he was laid back unconscious against a tree, we were at the edge of the box, far enough from the pit to be unaffected but a couple miles too close to feel comfortable. "Where is Lysander he should be back by now." "He's still harvesting let him be." "Is that supposed to be funny? You have my brother under a spell to turn him into a flesh eating freak to fill up that pit for some reason?" "You be a good little boy and help keep your brother under wraps till this is over and I'll keep turning him back, nobody gets hurt right?" "You had me kidnap Marco!" "He's just bait, and he'll take care of the brat the same way you take care of your brother, or maybe the other way around, I haven't decided yet." "For an evil mastermind you don't seem to care much about specifics lady." "He's here." My eyes shot up and looked around he was standing there at the edge of the forest, "who are you?"

Ricard-

What I saw didn't look good, collapsed against a tree was Marco, Lorcan was standing over him biting his thumb nail, and near them was a woman in her early forties if I had to guess. For the woman controlling the wendigo and who was doing whatever black magic was in that pit, she looked surprisingly normal, long straight auburn hair, a dark sweater jeans and boots, a wand clutched in her left hand "who are you?" "Mary Katherine Mode, you are aquatinted with Lorcan no?" "Yeah I've met him once or twice. What are you doing here, why are you doing this?" "Is this an intro or interrogation?" "Both, why are you cursing Lysander like this, what is in that pit?" "A party gift for hogwarts, now, I promised Lorcan here that I would let you and Marco take the twins place so, do you want to host Gula?" "Gula?" "You go to hogwarts and you don't know basic Latin?" "I can't remember my own middle name half the time." "You're a little too annoying." She pointed her wand at me and there was a bolt of green lightning, that just screamed 'get out of the way!' I transformed, the bolt sailing over my head and I sprinted to her, I tackled her in the gut and ran at Marco, I became human and picked him up slinging him over my back and changed again running i dodged spells from both Mary Katherine mode and Lorcan, I was t paying attention to where I was running though because I ended up in the clearing with the pit and was tackled by Lysander the not so friendly wendigo. We went tumbling, Marco falling from my back, and Lysander clawing at me as we rolled towards the pit, I was playing to every god I had ever heard of that Lucy had reached her dad and the aurors were dismantling the box, I threw him off and retreated backwards reverting and slamming my fists into the ground, roots shot up from the ground twining around Lysander and pinning him to the ground, and that was all it took to push me past my limit, my head nearly dropped and my knees shook I was going to fall asleep, I fought against it, I raised my hand to my lips and bit hard enough to draw blood, the pain keeping me awake, roots grew over Marco protecting him and and I was saved from a bolt of green magic by a wave of tiredness tripping backwards and biting myself again a tree stump near Lorcan bursting into life and shooting at him and knocking him out "o-one... Last... One..." I tripped and fell against the edge of the pit, I hadn't even felt the terror I was so exhausted, looked at Mary Katherine More as she glared daggers at me, leveling her wand with me ready to end me, "you little-" all around us there were sounds of sudden explosive decompression and bolts of pale blue magic colored with her from all sides, she collapsed and I saw aurors and teachers and even the headmaster all around us. I tried to stand to crawl away from the pit but all I managed to do was look into it, and pass out."

"How are you? Holding up? I'm the head of the office of aurors." I nodded "I remember seeing you there..." "My names Is harry, um... Can I get you something to eat or drink? You um... Look like you haven't eaten in weeks..." "Nothing stays down..." "I'm sorry... You asked when we brought you in initially... If we would remove your memories, I've agreed, but it's a tricky subject considering your family life." I nodded "your mother did write us though, she's very worried about you, it's been a few weeks since the incident. Everything is in hand." "I know... Please... " I looked up at harry, he was a cool calm and collected 40 something hear old with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead, i swear I had heard the name before. "Alright, the pm asked that I make absolutely sure we have everything that happened down in print, can you tell the story again?" I nodded "I figured out that they had used a Pandora's box spell to hide... The pit... The woman... Mary Katherine Mode... Was using a spell to transform Lysander into a wendigo, and have his twin clean up after him to keep it a secret it was againsttheir will I swear." Harry nodded "she was having the wendigo collect all that... Meat... And dump it into the pit." "Do you know the purpose of the pit?" I nodded. "I saw what was inside... It was an offal pit... A gathering of flesh offerings...to... To..." He held up a hand to stop me, I was turning green "it's okay... You don't need to go back there..." I nodded "why did she do it?" I asked him and he sighed "the wendigo was supposed to pick up the... Meat, and from what we can tell she was working with other dark wizards, she was a hufflepuff, graduated a few years before I did, Apparently she had a really rough go of it... Whatever group she joined afterwards she provided the idea to perform the pit outside of hogwarts, So that if they succeeded in summoning whatever they were attempting... It would have a plentiful food source." "What's going to happen to her?" "She was tried and sent to azkaban." I nodded "will I... Will I ever be normal again?" He looked at me surprised "I haven't been able to hold down food for a week... I'm sleeping less and less but having more episodes that end in night terrors... I just wanted to protect Lucy and Marco..." I was crying, I hated crying. Before I knew it harry had come around the table and was rubbing my back "it's okay, you were so brave, your friends are fine, everything will be okay, don't worry about a thing."

Lucy-

I had never used a phone before, one had been installed in hogsmead, for muggle borns to use if they wanted, I had only seen it in use once or twice. I pushed the coins in and punched in the numbers on the slip of paper gripped in my hand "hello?" "Marco? Is that you?" "It's me Lucy, and you don't have to shout." "Oh... Sorry... Did you have a happy Christmas?" "Yeah... You?" I nodded and then realized my mistake "yes... It was nice... I'm just..." "Worried? Has your dad told you anything?" I shook my head and face palmed embarrassed "what's the matter?" "I keep nodding my head and forgetting you cant see me." He laughed over the line "he told me they sent him home to recover... Whatever that means... He says Ricard will always be welcome here..." "Do... Do you think he'll come back?" "I don't know... Lorcan says he wouldn't blame him for snapping his sand and never using magic again after what he went through..." "How are they? The twins?" "Lysander is home with his parents... He doesn't remember anything, he Even has massive gaps in his memory from when he wasn't the wendigo that were corrupted by the spell he was under... Lorcan has been cleared of all charges, but is under fifty different kinds of probation." "I see.." "How are you doing Marco?" "Alright, my parents are glad to have me back, though explaining all the danger and madness that's been going on was... Difficult." "Are they going to let you come back?" "They agreed finally, I had to beg and please and pout though." I just laughed at him. "How are you Lucy... Really, cuz I know you were having nightmares... And with what happened-" "I'm fine. It's not like I was the one held hostage." "I was unconscious I don't remember anything at all." "I... Okay... See you soon huh? You better be ready for quiditch." "I'll try my best."

I reached the common room and looked around hopefully, I had taken the early train in so almost nobody was here, I saw a couple older kids, then I saw Ajax and went over to say hi to him. After greeting him and hearing all about his vacation away from the school we went in search of our other friends, we spent the whole day rounding up friends as they arrived, despite Lucy literally living here I couldn't find her all day long.

The next day I did finally find Lucy, she came to all of her classes but the only thing she said to me was hi, and I missed you."

It was almost spring, despite the calendar and the ground hog claiming it was much to early for it, Lucy had been present but absent, she was always there always around, but she was quiet, and I think it was my fault too, I just didn't know how be normal around her anymore... The only thing that really cheered me up was finding out I had made the JV quiditch pitch, Lucy had made seeker of course, and I was just keeper. It was about two weeks before the end of the school year, games were actually fun, with practice every day I was exhausted, and thought that this would be my new life, quiditch and studying, but then things changed all over again.

And then it happened, despite the warmer weather we had been having nothing like this was possible, every single tree and flower near Hogwarts suddenly went I to bloom, and I knew, he was back. I ran to the headmasters office and was mounting the stairs to reach it and crashed right into Lucy. Who was standing at the top of the staircase, we scrambled to get back on our feet and headed towards her fathers office, just in time to see Ricard stepping out, at his feet was a... I don't even know? It was little stump of wood that seems to have tiny legs and arms, two heady black eyes and a jagged line in the bark that looked like a mouth? "Hey guys! Look Ma said I was finally old enough for my own treant! His name is Cecil." I didn't hesitate running right up and hugging him. Lucy held back though and I turned to see she was wiping her eyes. "You idiot! You were gone so long! You missed all of our games, and you missed exams, what if you have to repeat the year!" "I'm sorry Lucy... My mom thought I needed time, I feel okay now... It's just... Apparently things were really bad for a while, but Mr. Potter got me all fixed up so things should be fine now." She cried harder and harder and he hugged her tightly "I'm glad you're back alright."

Lucy-

"So he's back? He'll be moving up to second year with us?" My dad nodded "these were... Horrible circumstances, and it's unfortunate the price of keeping all of these students safe was half a year of his education, especially in his first year, but the ministry won't easily forget the great service he did for them, he will be attending our sister school in America where his mother can keep an eye on him and he can catch up." "So that's it then?" He nodded "hogwarts has a long, long history of complicated school years, the last of the potters only just graduated two years ago you know." I nodded. "Besides, if you're worried about next year not having enough excitement we are entering the triwizard tournament, your sister's set on competing." "I wouldn't exactly call this year exciting. Nerve wracking would be better."

Year 2-

Everyone was returning to hogwarts, I was so excited to see them again, I was happy to see my other friends, Mira and Rachel, slightly less enthused to see ciao and Ajax, but the real shock came when I finally found Marco and Ricard. Marco saw me first and I hardly recognized him, he nearly choked the life out of me, he must have grown six inches over summer, he had the same clean cut brown hair and calm friendly look as ever. He let go of me finally after I squeezed him back and told him how much I missed him. I saw Ricard standing with 'Cecil' the baby treant, I was surprised by how... Fit he looked. He looked like he was packing on muscle, his normal bed head was present as always and he looked as happy as ever. He gave me a big hug and spun me around "miss me?" I couldn't help but laugh "yes I missed you, you lazy idiot!" Our reunion was broken up by a girl I recognized but couldn't remember the name of "the headmaster said he wanted to see you three in his office."

We were standing in line in my fathers office, when my big sister walked in. Amelia. She was everything I hated in my sisters, the sixth daughter. Her blonde hair was dyed with streaks of red, she was tall, busty, and powerful. Easily the strongest in her year. She was the family rebel, wearing a punk rock version of the standard school uniform. I looked at my dad "what's she doing here?" He chuckled, I really hated it when my dad chuckled "Since you three seem to be followed by trouble constantly I thought it a good idea to prepare you for our travel to beauxbatons. Our dark forest is home to plenty of creatures, but currently, the forest in the Pyrenees, is currently home to lethifolds." I opened my mouth instantly to object but my dad gave me that look that said 'yes I know you know that they prefer tropical environments' "we're going to teach you the patronus charm."

Tbc


End file.
